Think about going to work every day with a strong sense of conviction. You sincerely support the mission of your company and firmly hold those ideals in high regard. You enjoy what you do because you recognize the positive impact your company has on the globe. You enjoy going to work and giving your all since you realize how important it is. A company with an inspiring vision, may make people genuinely motivated.
What is Vision?
Vision the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. Vision is a future oriented concept of a business. Forming a strategic vision is an exercise in thinking about where a company needs to be to achieve success.
A vision is a mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organization. A vision describes aspirations for the future a destination for the organization. We can say that a vision is a dream – a distant, long-term dream.
An organization’s vision, which is often called ‘purpose of the organization’, is designed to express the fundamental reason for the organization’s existence. Usually, most organizations describe their vision or purpose in one or two sentences in the form of a statement called a vision statement.
The vision statement is used to refer to an understanding of why the organization exists. It provides direction for the organization. A proper vision statement is comprised of two elements: a detailed, descriptive picture of the future you aspire to, andhuge, scary, long-term goals. It is important when painting this detailed picture of the future to dream big (the bigger the better), even if you feel your goals are unattainable.
When dreaming up possibilities ask yourself these questions:
- In 5 to 10 years, what would you love to see?
- What should this company look like in the future?
- What do we want to be known for?
- What should we have achieved by then?
- Do we find this vision exciting?
- Does it incite our employees to further actions?
- Does it get our juices flowing?
Importance of Vision
For both people and businesses, having a vision proves to be extremely important. Given the trials and tribulations that may come your way, when you have a clear vision of what you want to happen, you can make better decisions.
Here’s a look at a few reasons why having a vision is so vital to success and joy:
- Overcome roadblocks and hurdles.
Challenges are inevitable. When you run into a wall or a hurdle, you need to know which way to go. A clear vision provides you with something to look forward to and work towards. It provides you with a reason to keep going, even when the times get tough.
- Substantiate your goals.
Having a vision places a purpose upon your goal-setting activities. Without an end goal or destination in mind, you won’t have a clear or defined path. Vision provides this.
To achieve your vision or goal, you can start by setting small, attainable goals as steppingstones. Each relatively little bit of success will help to continue propelling you forward on your bigger journey.
- Sets expectations.
Setting goals comes along with defining measurements of success. If you set a goal, how do you know when you’ve reached it if you don’t have a way to define success? Thus, an overall life vision helps to set expectations accordingly.
- Adds focus.
Having a vision ensures that your life or business goals can remain focused. When you are faced with a decision or distraction, you can ask yourself if it will help or hurt you in attaining your vision. This can offer you the means to move forward with intention and alignment.
- Delivers meaning and purpose.
A vision is a way to answer your own “why” of life. It gives you the reason for your actions, choices, hopes, and desires. This fills your daily activities with meaning and purpose.
Characteristics of Effective Vision
Vision statements are management tools that if used appropriately, have the potential to help improve your organization’s probability of success. However, it’s important to keep in mind, that it is a tool available to your organization in the development of your strategy.
Vision statements of many companies show that most of them do clearly communicate the intent of the management. Some of them are not inspiring. Vision statements of some companies are full of nicely worded abstracts with no clear direction. These visions statements fail to say anything specific and meaningful.
All stakeholders should be involved in developing an organization’s vision to ensure an effectively worded statement.
An effective vision should have the following characteristics so that it can serve as a management tool for providing the company a sense of direction.
- Graphic: The vision should draw a picture that can reveal where the company is heading and can also clearly indicate the market position.
- Directional: It can provide clear direction to the managers and employees as well as describe a forward-looking picture of the company.
- Focused: It can specifically guide managers in decision making and allocating resources of the company.
- Flexible: It must be flexible enough so that with changes in the product, technology or market, the vision itself can also be changed to keep pace with changing situations.
- Feasible: It should portray an expectation for the future that is achievable not just spelling out an expectation for the sake of talking about it.
- Desirable: It should be able to indicate; ‘why the chosen path makes good business senses
- Easy to communicate: The vision must be worded in such a way that it can be communicated easily to the stakeholders, especially the shareholders, employees, and customers.
Value of a vision statement in an organization
1. A clear vision statement acts as a unifying force and has a positive impact on organizational effectiveness. When personnel understand and buy-in to the organization’s vision statement, it brings them together. It focuses and aligns efforts, so everyone is working towards the same understood goal.
2. A solid vision statement acts as a guide for employee actions and decision making. For example, if there is a decision to be made to undertake a project, or how to act on a task: simply stop and ask, “Is what I am doing consistent with our organization’s vision statement?” If it is, great, move forward. If not, or if there is any doubt, now is the time to pause, evaluate, and if need be, align the action or decision with the vision statement; or forgo it. The vision statement will provide the guidance employees need to make the right decisions.
3. Possibly the most significant benefit of a clear vision statement is it can be motivating and inspiring. When an individual understands and aligns with the core values and vision of the organization, they can readily commit to, and engage in, the organization’s efforts. Engaged and inspired personnel can go a long way in helping the organization achieve its mission and goals.
4. It helps managers to think strategically about such issues as the advent of new technology, changes in the customer expectations and needs, available marketing opportunities and other environmental factors. Managers get an insight into drawing reasoned conclusions concerning winds of change and then selecting appropriate paths to deal with the change. Finally, for a vision to be effective, it must be inspiring, and for it to be inspiring it must resonate with everyone in the organisation. Whether you are running a business or an individual looking to accomplish their personal goals in life, having a vision is important. Your company’s vision statement is not only your key to strong, lasting success but also your guiding light. It will serve as the destination for planning efforts whether strategic, operational, or business. A vision can consist of personal goals, physical health, career goals, educational goals, and any other aspects of life. No matter what aspect you choose to focus on, you can define and attain your vision with effort, determination, and focus.
